IOWA CITY, Iowa — In barely more than two weeks, Iowa’s regular season will end in Lincoln, Neb., and there’s a 50-50 shot the Hawkeyes will end up in Indianapolis as the Big Ten West champ.
Regardless of those game outcomes or the bowl destination, there are matters of critical importance awaiting the Hawkeyes as soon as the regular season concludes. The transfer portal opens on Dec. 4, and deciding what to do at offensive coordinator is perhaps even more imperative.
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Last week, Iowa interim athletics director Beth Goetz announced offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will not return after the season. Goetz consulted with Iowa President Barbara Wilson before the news release. The situation created tense moments around Fortress Kinnick with head coach Kirk Ferentz providing some ambiguously worded comments about his future. A day later on his radio show, Kirk Ferentz said he planned to return next year.
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Considering Iowa’s offensive struggles, which is in the neighborhood of last nationally in every category, the offensive coordinator position needs clarity as quickly as any offensive dabbling in the portal. That’s for the current players weighing a return to Iowa City and those who might consider Iowa, but decide based on scheme and staff.
Whoever comes to Iowa must mesh philosophically with Kirk Ferentz. That includes a traditional run-based system with drop-back passing. The offense will feature the tight end with limited running by the quarterback. Maybe that doesn’t match the fan base’s desires for the position but until Ferentz leaves, he gets to decide how he wants to run his team.
Ferentz rarely strays from his comfort level, so most of the first-blush candidates are those who have a connection with him. Here are five possible candidates.
Iowa senior special assistant Jon Budmayr: A former Wisconsin quarterback, Budmayr was the Badgers’ quarterbacks coach from 2018-20 before joining Colorado State as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2021. Along with the entire staff, Budmayr was let go after that season and became an offensive analyst at Iowa in 2022. His role elevated this year and he works with Iowa’s quarterbacks. Before picking Michigan, injured Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara developed a good relationship with Budmayr as a recruit and that helped him choose Iowa when he went into the portal last winter. Budmayr also was the first assistant to offer current Iowa starter Deacon Hill.
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Former Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst: Now an offensive analyst at Texas, Chryst was head coach at Pittsburgh and Wisconsin, the latter of which he led from 2015 until his surprising firing midway through the 2022 season. Chryst was 67-26 at Wisconsin with three West Division titles and three New Year’s Six bowl appearances. Chryst’s line-of-scrimmage philosophy coupled with a physical running game fits Ferentz, although Chryst employed more gap blocking while Iowa prefers zone. Overall, Chryst was 5-3 against Iowa and 5-2 while with the Badgers. Also, his nephew, Keller Chryst, is an offensive analyst at Iowa.
Tampa Bay Bucs senior offensive analyst David Raih: A former Iowa walk-on quarterback from Ferentz’s first team in 1999 through the Big Ten championship squad of 2002, Raih has bounced from college football to the NFL throughout the last 15 seasons. Raih was an Iowa graduate assistant from 2010-12, working with the offensive line for two years and then tight ends. He coached wide receivers with the Green Bay Packers in 2018 and with the Arizona Cardinals in 2019-20. In 2021, he was Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator and receivers coach but was fired after the season.
Wyoming offensive coordinator Tim Polasek: After coaching Iowa’s offensive line from 2017-2020, Polacek left the Hawkeyes to join former North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl in Wyoming. Polasek played quarterback in college and at Wyoming he’s the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Before coming to Iowa, Polasek was offensive coordinator and running backs coach at North Dakota State. Polasek crafted a game plan in 2016 to help the Bison beat Iowa 23-21 on the game’s final play. Traditionally, this is a natural progression for someone like Polasek. The question is, what kind of a relationship did he have with Ferentz while on staff?
Iowa running backs coach Ladell Betts: With little collegiate coaching experience, Betts is someone who only Ferentz could gauge as a possible coordinator. Betts arrived in 2021 and the strides in the Hawkeyes running backs appear obvious. Betts is the only running back to lead Iowa in rushing for four consecutive seasons, and he did it in the final three for Ferentz in 1999-2001. Betts also has an extensive NFL background after playing nine seasons for Washington and New Orleans. The running backs have clear respect for him so if nothing else, Betts should have an interview.
There are others, of course, and names should start to surface in the coming weeks. As for the present, here’s another major question.

Ferentz acceded to the wishes of Iowa fandom when he inserted defensive back DeJean for two plays on the offensive side of the ball on Saturday against Northwestern. DeJean ran a jet sweep for 8 yards on the first play, then went in motion on the other snap on a run.
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Although it was a play the offense had worked on in preparation for Northwestern, Ferentz quipped, “I gave the wrong answer the other night. I was reading a couple emails. People suggested, why don’t you get Cooper on offense?”
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But the legitimate question is how many snaps could DeJean play on offense without jeopardizing his All-American ability from the defensive side as a cornerback?
“It’s a tough one,” Ferentz said. “I do know this, he’s extremely valuable on defense, extremely valuable on special teams. So where do you take? We have a pretty good thing going defensively right now. You’re worried about disrupting that. Same thing on special teams. If we can get the ball in his hands, he gives us a chance as a return guy.
“Obviously, I think he could really help us offensively. Again, so could (former Iowa defensive back) Micah Hyde. You have to wait things out and try to make sure you’re trying to do for the overall picture. Nobody knows what the right number is.”
DeJean admitted he was nervous when he entered the game on offense and guessed that he had taken his first handoff since middle school. Throughout his high school career, DeJean was a dual-threat quarterback and put up more than 9,200 all-purpose yards in his final two seasons.
When asked if he would feel comfortable taking a direct snap, DeJean smiled, repeated the question and said, “Yeah, yeah.”
It would be unprecedented for Ferentz to insert DeJean as a wildcat quarterback, although the junior is the team’s biggest weapon with the ball. DeJean returned three interceptions for touchdowns last year, brought back a punt 70 yards for a score against Michigan State and had a 54-yard score erased from the record books after waving his arm at chest level for an invalid fair catch against Minnesota.
Perhaps what’s keeping DeJean from playing offense are the season-ending injuries to the Hawkeyes’ top offensive players in tight ends Luke Lachey and Erick All. Ferentz appears more concerned with the potential an injury could happen to DeJean on offense and he would prefer not to risk it.
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“I know this,” Ferentz said, “we’re missing some guys right now that aren’t playing, that aren’t coming back this year. We can’t take another torpedo on that front, I know that.”
(Top photo of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz: David Banks / USA Today)
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